Drone allegedly used in attempt to smuggle drugs into Melbourne prison

Police have intercepted a drone allegedly trying to deliver a stash of drugs across a Victorian prison wall in what is believed to be one of the first instances of the flying machine being used for criminal activity in Australia.

Authorities were yesterday called to the Metropolitan Remand Centre in Ravenhall, 22 kilometres west of Melbourne, after receiving reports of a drone flying in the vicinity of the prison.

They found a car parked on a nearby road with a man and woman inside allegedly operating a four-engine drone.

The man, 28, was charged with possessing a drug of dependence and attempting to commit an indictable offence, but it remains unclear whether any air safety laws were violated in the unusual incident.

Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) spokesman Peter Gibson says the recreational use of drones is unregulated in Australia despite there being rules to manage their use in a commercial setting.

"The commercial or work use of a remotely piloted aircraft is regulated by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority," he said.

"Using them essentially as model aircraft, people can just buy them and use them, as long as they fly them according to the safety rules."

Safety rules will be enforced: CASA

Mr Gibson says the safety rules are "pretty simple" and require the device to be no closer than 30 metres to people or property and no higher than 400 feet (122 metres) to ensure they remain out of the path of more conventional aircraft.

They must also not be flown near an airport and must stay within the pilot's line of sight at all times.

Mr Gibson said CASA issues infringement notices when safety rules are breached, such as in the instance of a drone that was accidentally flown into the Sydney Harbour Bridge last year triggering confusion on the train line below.

"That remotely piloted model aircraft had been used in an inappropriate place in an inappropriate way," he said.

"We certainly will take action and issue infringement notices if people breach the safety rules and of course we need to have evidence of that."

There are also practical limitations to the use of drones including the distance they can fly, the amount of time they can fly and how much they can carry, according to the Queensland University of Technology's Professor Duncan Campbell.

Professor Campbell, who is the director of the Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation, says the alleged use of the drone at the Melbourne remand centre was not surprising.

"I think in terms of the machine doing that sort of thing, there's not a great surprise there," he said.

"It's well within 10 minutes of flight duration, presumably the package was light so [it] may not have been a big payload issue, but clearly the application is not a desired one."

The incident at the prison is one of the first times police have come across a person allegedly using the device for criminal purposes, but Professor Campbell says there is great potential for the aircraft, which are already being used by fire authorities and police.

Drones: a growth industry

Professor Campbell says drones can be used in bushfire monitoring, disaster response and even search and rescue situations, but he says battery life remains a current limitation.

"We're particularly interested in applications that have a long-term public benefit and a long-term commercial viability," he said, adding there was "tremendous" economic growth in the industry.

"I think there is a lot of work to be done in terms of the energy source for these machines ... we've got large cattle properties, long distances to fly.

"So we then come back to conventional petrol-driven type of engines and that's where we get to machines that could fly, for instance, six hours which means we then get into quite a good realm of viability ... for agriculture on large properties, livestock inspections, that sort of thing."

Amazon claim to have developed a drone which can carry two kilograms within a 16-kilometre radius.

Pending approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration, they plan to start using the drones to deliver books and DVDs within five years.